"Our prison system and the way it operates is a reflection of our values as a society.”
—Locke Bowman, Civil Rights Attorney
Two men have been literally burned alive in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The first was nine years ago, when Josh Devine’s cell exploded in fire. Josh grew up on Indy's east side. His dad died when he was two, and as he grew up, he started stealing food and eventually money. His efforts earned him a 16-year sentence, and he would have been released in 2023. But on April 7th, 2017, when all the inmates in B cell house were locked in for the night, a fire started in Josh’s cell.
Inmates screamed for help. Everyone on that floor joined in yelling for help. The fire had exploded into an inferno, but no one was responding. After 10 excruciating minutes, someone finally came to see what the noise was all about, but the guard didn’t have the keys to open the cell, and the communication devices were not working. So he left to go down six flights of stairs to send someone else up with keys. By the time he returned, the cell was engulfed in a ball of flame, and the door would only partially open. Covered with 2nd and 3rd-degree burns, Josh tried to pull the door open as the skin on his hands peeled off. Then he fell to his knees and died.
The next day, the Indiana State Prison reported the fire, but blamed it on the inmate, saying he had been cooking meth amphetamine in his cell. Fire investigators, however, found no indication of drugs in the cell and determined the fire to be accidental, probably caused by an electrical issue. OK, bad things happen, and sometimes, no one is at fault. But there’s a lot more to this story that was uncovered and reported by WTHR, indicating massive failures by the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Just for starters: The guards never called the town fire marshal, located two minutes away, and never evacuated the inmates who were gagging for air. Also, the guards had never received the required training to handle a fire situation or evacuate a cell house, in spite of fictionalized reports that indicated quarterly nighttime fire drills or regular training of the guards. Meanwhile, Indiana’s required annual fire marshal inspections of prisons hadn’t taken place for seven years.
With the electrical outlets sizzling and sparking regularly, small fires were often dealt with. But for years, the prison was not inspected as required by law. Instead, year after year, employees there filled out reports that gave the facility high marks for many things, including fire extinguishers, fire alarms, and sprinkler systems.” (And yet there are no sprinkler systems in the Indiana State Prison.)
Still, the prison’s internal investigation into the fire that killed Josh Divine stated it “cannot find any violations of policy or procedure or misconduct…” So, in 2018, Josh’s family filed a lawsuit in federal court. The attorney general’s office claimed there was insufficient evidence, but the judge countered that the warden and supervisors were aware of an “abundant number of safety hazards, including the persistent issues with fires and electrical outlets sparking.” He also noted sloppy practices, like broken communication devices, untrained staff, no sprinklers, and zero fire drills on the night shift, etc. As court cases do, the years went by and in 2023, the case was ready to go to trial when this happened:
It was January, and Michael Smith was in his cell at the Indiana State Prison when a fire broke out. Michael is screaming for help as are other prisoners. Within minutes, prison firefighters came, but did not have the right kind of extinguisher. They left to get the other one. Too much time passed and Michael died; he too is burned alive. The family asked questions, but say there were no legitimate answers. Then, not surprisingly, the Indiana Department of Correction decided not to go to trial in the Josh Devine case. Instead, Josh's family was offered around $3.9 million in restitution. It didn't bring their brother back, but to them, at least, it represented an admission of fault.
Indiana is a frugal state. Our leaders here are careful with the money we pay in taxes and try to use funds wisely. But this is not wisdom. It was a shocking indictment of the management in the largest prison in Indiana, marked by a seemingly casual disinterest of the very parties in control there. Indiana recently spent $1.2 million on restitution in another prison debacle—also one where inmates were badly mistreated. Money can do a lot of good things, and one of them should be to respect human life and care for those in our prisons as we would want one of our own family members to be cared for.
Locke Bowman, who represented the Devine family, is right. The way we treat people during incarceration is truly a reflection of the kind of people we are. Hoosiers are good people. They don't like this kind of thing. Not one bit.
Jim
Watch the WTHR Video Here.
